It took the research organization at least five times until they finally got me on the phone. It must be more and more difficult for them to find people to participate in these surveys. I don’t think they can call cellphones. So who in this world would still have a landline? Glad they do not conduct surveys using short wave radio, or currier pigeons.

The questions were so very transparent and also quite frightening. They were frightening because they even existed. The topics they touched should not even be part of a survey? But I guess it is the tension of opinions that ensures that generation after generation has something to fight against, or something to stand for. Firmly.I just wish that the topics were somehow directed towards building a better or more tolerant way of life on the planet in general. Or life in the universe?Not how to be more fearful of others and something big and intangible and probably angry.

Yesterday, I was invited by Yahoo to contribute some of my photos to their Weather app. And obviously it is all voluntary and free and I allow them to use my photos in most ways possible, if I ever submit them. In the conditions section of the small print I was not just agreeing that Yahoo could use the photos on planet earth. The text mentions “the universe” as a legal location. It feels like there is some real long-term planning going on somewhere? If I were ever to have “weather related photography” from another inhabitable planetary system, I could probably still submit it, and the legal department at Yahoo would have been ready for that particular case.

The man conducting the survey actually asked about “the universe”. He also asked how often I think about it. (Daily.) It was interesting that a question about the universe could be in the same survey in that fears of anything that is just slightly different from what an ancient organization thought of itself could be felt.

While answering question after question I could almost feel the presence of a person that was giving the exact opposite answers somewhere else. Maybe they were in the same building, maybe on the other side of the country, or somewhere in-between. She or he must have been a very fearful someone, afraid of people like me, afraid that there could be more people like me, and that I, and people like me could do something that might change things for the worse for her or him. One could feel that very focused thinking somehow.

That imaginary person must exist. And even if there is a huge distance between us, we still get to see the same sky, and we still sit on the same little round object, falling for its life around a star in the vastness of the awesome universe.We were both born, and we will both die. Perhaps with a different set of expectations, as we get closer to that second certain event.

But when she or he looks up to the sky? Does she or he enjoy the beauty of the clouds, the incredible stars at night? Does she or he feel a sense of satisfaction when looking at them? I think I should probably submit some of those weather pictures soon.